The Everglades

The Everglades, The Big Swamp of Florida, U.S.A. The Everglades is a great marsh covering a large part of the south end of Florida. It is not a swamp in the common use of the term for the water is clear and wholesome and has a slow current. The area when viewed from a distance is remarkably flat, and although its origin is not entirely agreed upon by scientific men it probably belongs to the class of plains of marine origin. Although continuous with the Atlantic coast plain it is of different nature, for while that was laid down in the ocean depths by deposition from the land, Florida is made largely of limestone which reached the surface by a slow uprising of the sea floor. Much of its interior is underlaid by the limestone. Here numerous lakes are found as if occupying cavities dissolved out of soluble rock. Some of the rivers disappear in "sinks" emerging elsewhere as large springs. J.N. McGonigle writes in the National Geographic Magazine for December, 1896: "The Everglades consists of two great basins lying between Lake Okeechobee and the extreme southern point of the peninsula. The floor and rim of these basins are formed of limestone. On the edges or rim, where the limestone is exposed, it presents a singular appearance. Here it is weathered and water worn into peculiar shapes which gave rise to the early opinion that Florida was of coralline formation. Immediately over the rock is deposited the result of ages of decayed vegetation forming a soft peat or muck, the depth of which varies from a few inches to five feet. It is everywhere present over the floor of the great basins and if ever drained will afford a soil of incalculable richness and fertility."

Scan courtesy of The Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida. Image retouched and converted to anaglyph in 2005 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. View this image using 3D glasses with the blue lens over the left eye and the red lens over the right eye.